Telepan

Good morning! Thank you all for the birthday wishes… really, I felt so much love all day yesterday from family, blog friends, reader friends, traveling friends, school friends, work friends… you get the idea. This birthday was a little different from those past, but I really couldn’t have asked for a better one.

I may have had to be up for class at 8 yesterday, but I made a special breakfast I’ve been meaning to try for a while: Katie’s Pumpkin Boatmeal for One. Sorry for the uncomely picture… the sun wasn’t yet up when I took it!

I added dried cherries and cashew butter at the end, but otherwise followed the recipe to a T. It was a really great change from my usual breakfasts, and I loved the consistency! It really was like a cake, and quite filling.

The rest of the day was a total blur… do you ever have those days when you’re constantly moving and it feels like time both stretches and shrinks?

That’s what it was like, and here’s how it went: Bio recitation–> bio lab –> home —> 3.5 mile run —> quick shower then out the door! —> pick up lunch at Chop’t (Vegetarian Powerhouse, please!) —> doctor’s appointment #1 —> doctor’s appointment #2 —> home at 4 and finally ate lunch (do not go 9 hours without food, friends!) —> NAP.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately and the gogogo! day just wiped me out. When I woke up, my mom put together a delicious birthday dinner: fettuccine with fried sage. She makes the sauce by sautéeing fresh sage in butter and olive oil and tossing it with cooked pasta. Try it!

MVP also made my favorite chocolate cake, a recipe from Joy of Cooking.

This has been my “birthday cake” for years and years, and the secret is in the frosting. It’s got a little coffee in it, and she swaps brown sugar for regular. The first time I tried this cake I was about four and I kept scooping fingerfuls of icing, thinking no one would notice. By the time we were ready to eat the cake one of the sides was almost bare!

Speaking of cake, I picked up my Sephora Beauty Insider birthday gift and it’s a mini bottle of cake-scented Philosophy shampoo/ body wash/ bubble bath. If you shop at Sephora and aren’t yet an Insider, get on it! You get more free samples and deals, and they always remember your birthday .

By now you’re probably sick of hearing about my birthday, but I couldn’t let our meal at Telepan on Sunday night go undocumented. My little redheaded friend went here for Restaurant Week a couple years ago and raved about it, and I’d been dying to go ever since. It’s a restaurant that uses local and organic produce, and the menu changes seasonally.

5 grain bread, semolina-raisin bread, white cheddar cheese puffs

We shared oysters with roasted tomato and mint:

And calamari “pasta”with arugula pesto and cherry tomatoes.

My dad ordered the wild striped bass with “clam chowder” and smoked bacon… he liked it so much he forgot to offer my mom a bite!

My mom had the heritage pork with baked beans, housemade apple sausage, collard greens and honey mustard. She mmm!ed through the whole meal.

I zeroed in on what I wanted immediately: roasted delicata squash, sweet potato panna cotta, spaghetti squash almondine, and spinach. It doesn’t look like much in the photo, but it was delicious! I’d never have thought to mix up spaghetti squash with almonds and herbs (and a lot of butter!) but it was fabulous.

For dessert, we shared the hot apple pie with apple butter cream, caramel sauce, cinnamon & caramel ice cream terrine. Our server wasn’t so helpful about suggesting a dessert, but this was perfect! Apple butter cream? Y-e-e-e-s!

They gave us teensy macaroons on the way out, and I enjoyed one when I got home. It helped with my Statistics studying!

It was a wonderful- and unusual!- meal spent with my two favorite parents.

What did you- are you- doing for your birthday this year?